Since getting the Harley I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of chopping a Honda CM400. I could give you a million excuses about why but I will save you that.

Even though I’m not doing my own, I still appreciate it when I come across someones else’s CM400 build. These builds are not something you will find a lot of on the web. Sure, you will find people saying they have done one and may even post a blurry picture of something that may be a Honda. But there is next to no information out there about customizing these bikes.

Knowing the frustrations with trying to find information and inspirations for these builds, I try to post any information I came across. Today I have a new find I want to share. This new find is hands down the best CM400 build I have seen.

This build comes from a shop in Dallas, Texas called Slaughter City Customs. I came across the build on their Myspace page. They have a bunch of pictures, starting from the stock 1990 Honda CM400T bike to the beautiful finish work.

Head over to their myspace page to check out more pictures and ask questions.

This post has been long overdue.

Well, you know that itch that I scratched a few months back? (no? Then update yourself homeslice: link) I don’t think I scratched it well enough because we ending up buying a 2008 Harley Davidson XL1200N Nightster. When we were looking around, I was looking for the Baby Blue/Black nightster. I soon realized I’m not quite that comfortable with my sexuality to pull it off. Instead, I went with the colors that I’ve been drooling over since first seeing the bike, Orange and Black. B-E-A-utiful! I can’t wait till we get settled in North Carolina and I can hit the roads. I’m fully the expecting the rides out there to be purrrty.

There are still a few things I need to do to fully transition into my Harley owner status. One, I need to start working on getting that leathery skin look. That means I need to rub myself down with baby oil and ride around in a wife beater. When my skin has the consistency of beef jerky I’m good to go. Second, I need to get some official jailhouse ink. I don’t want some poser ink, so I’m going to get myself arrested and sent to prison. Then I will do unpleasant things to get my Jailhouse bitch ink. Third, not really needed for Harley owners but doesn’t hurt, I will be getting a license plate with ‘PNS EXT‘. Everyone will know I’m riding a Harley to overcompensate for my tiny package.

It will be an awesome journey!

Sir Robbie Rob the “The Leathery Skin Harley Owner” is out! Peace!

For those of you not in the know, I love motocross. When I started riding dirt bikes something inside me just clicked. I had finally found something that was meant for me. I expect the feeling to be similar to a basketball player discovering a basketball for the first time. Even thinking about it brings a huge smile to my face.

A little more than a year after I started riding, I tore my ACL at a local MX track. My first BIG injury and the first time I was going to have surgery. The only thing I could think about was getting back to the track. So I went with a doctor that told me I could be back riding in 3 months. Well, a couple months later I was back on the bike…for 5 minutes. I had managed to get my foot caught on a tree root and my leg was yanked back. I heard a loud pop and felt the same pain as the first tear. I was pissed and frustrated which led to some tears. Luckily, I didn’t tear the ACL again but it stretched. I went to a another doctor and this time I took the slower approach to riding again.

11 months after the initial injury, I bought another dirt bike(The old one had some bad karma…seriously). I was pumped to be riding again. Well about my third time back out to the track, I high sided and landed on my head. It really freaked me out. After all the commotion, I instantly made sure I had no pain in my leg. Then I went through making sure I could move all limbs. I’m super paranoid about neck injuries. Initially, I didn’t think twice about stop riding. I had waited an entire year to ride again and I wasn’t about to walk away. Two day later, I changed my mind. As much as I love riding dirt bikes, I’m not in the same mindset to bounce back from injuries. I’m not willing to go through another year of rehab for a hobby.

Three weeks after I bought the dirt bike I sold it. Since then I haven’t thought about riding dirt. Kind of strange, it took landing on my head to clear some things up for me.

There is a reason I bought all of this up. I saw a clip from this weekend’s AMA Motorcross Championship race and it gave me chills. It shows Mike Alessi crashing and then getting ran over by the rest of the field. It’s one of the gnarliest crashes I’ve seen. Luckily, it looks like he is in good condition with two broken shoulder blades, a few ribs, and a concussion. Yes, I said luckily. He is still breathing and walking around.

At what point would you start asking yourself, Is the risk worth the reward? Mike Alessi just returned to racing from a broken coller bone.

For me, the great feeling I had riding isn’t worth the injuries. But I don’t rely on this type of thing for income. So I can’t really answer it on that level. Maybe that’s what separates the pros from everyone else. They are willing to hang it all out and not think twice. What do you think?

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

I forgot to post the short video I took of the Harley on Saturday. Here it is…all 12 seconds of it.

It sounds mean. grrr!

I itched the hell out of the scratch, smelled my fingers, and smiled in delight. That pretty much sums up the day I spent with the Nightster. It really did sooth the urge to go out and buy a bike. But it also answered some questions for me. First, this really is the bike I want to get. Everything, from the fit to the balance of the bike, felt perfect for me. It just felt right. I will probably test ride some other bikes throughout the summer just to make sure. The other question that was answered today was ‘Why do people have such a hard on for Harley Davidson?’. I now know why… because they’re effin bad ass. Let me try to explain what it felt like being in the presence of this bike. Yes, just saying I got wood would sum it up but I want to relive it. That way I can get wood again.

After signing the papers for the rental, the Cowboy Harley employee lead us outside for a walkaround. He also needed to go through the normal stuff like ‘here is the rear brake, lights, ignition, etc’. While he was explaining to me how to start a bike, he fired up the Nightster. The second it fired up my heart just skipped and I got this feeling in my stomach. The feeling was the same you get on rollercoasters or driving on a hilly road. It also produced a slight tingle in my mid region…no joke. Moving on. He then asked me to putt the bike up the parking lot and come back. He asking me to do this replaced my tingling feeling with a nervous sick feeling. I got on the bike and kicked it into gear. I did what he asked and made it through with issues. After this little test he tells me to have fun… oh and be careful with all that torque. Alev and I exchanged the normal “be careful… I will” stuff and I set out. As I pull out of the Harley parking lot I still have that nervous feeling in my stomach. As I get on the frontage rode I crack open the throttle, instantly feeling that torque I was warned about. I wasn’t quite ready for it and it lurched my body back. As soon as I cracked open the throttle the nervous feeling was gone… hello woodrow. That feeling lasted all day. If I would notice the feeling going away I would just grab a hand full of throttle. Just listening to the sound of that motor did it for me. I have heard a great many of Harleys but there is nothing like the sound of it when your on it’s back. No other manufactures can even come close to that sound.

Just to sum all of that up, riding the Nightster gave me funny feelings… down there.

Now you know me, I have to add a negative to all the positive. The one thing that I did not like on the bike was the 5th gear. When I was riding it like the law says I should, the gear was sluggish in the 65-75 range. It felt like I was in too high of a gear. If I was slamming through the gears and hitting 5th gear at about 80 it felt great. I also think it had a lot of room to go. I got the bike up to about 90 mph and it begged me to push it more. But I wasn’t about to test out my luck with that. That’s about the only negative thing I could say. The trip did have another negative thing about it but I will get to that further down.

I didn’t really plan out a ride as I let the excitement take control of everything. I briefly looked at the wall of maps at the dealership, but that was it. From there I set out towards Bastrop on 71, hitting up the Hyatt Lost PInes resort (beautiful ride). From there I took 71 to 21 heading out towards Paige. Just going where ever I went, I cut over on 1441 to 95 which took me to Elgin. From Elgin, I headed out towards Taylor through a variety of farm roads, leading me to 79. I followed 79 to 35 and took that up to 1431. I headed out towards Lime Creek rd. and then decided to head home for a rest.

As I headed home, my arms started burning. Doh!, I forgot to put on sunscreen and I will wearing a short sleeve. I thought I could get home and catch it before it got bad. Unfortunately, I was totally wrong. It must have already been bad at that point. Check out these pictures.

Yeah… it hurts. This was the other negative thing about today. I can’t remember the last time I had a burn this bad.

Here are some pictures from today.

Man know I have to get back on that Honda CM400. It may be a little hard after tasting something so big. Whoa, that sounded a little nasty.

I hope you enjoyed it cause I know I did.